It will be recalled, in the field of electronic components, that sheet-like elements called wafers are used, such as of silicon. The problem arises for holding such slices because of their slight thickness. More particularly, the thin character of these wafers, of the order of several tens to several hundreds of microns, renders their holding delicate with the risk of deforming them, even altering the components that they support. At present, these wafers are manipulated by means of their passive surface, to avoid alteration of their other active surface, which supports electronic components.
There is known a technique of holding wafers by suction. For example, the wafer is pressed by its passive surface against a flat surface of a suction cup of a pipette which transmits suction. However, the development of techniques tends to make the wafers even thinner, which renders more and more sensitive their holding, even rendering their manipulation impossible by suction in the above manner. Moreover, because of being able to hold the wafer only by its passive surface, operative constraints are imposed on the technique of manipulating the wafer.